“Dad, I got it, I finally got a picture of it!” was the jubilant expression I heard from my son as he proudly showed me a photo he took on his iPad of the electric-red bird with jet-black wings that was eluding him all morning high atop the trees in the yard. But there it was in all its glory, a male scarlet tanager.

The male scarlet tanager has got to be one of the most drop-dead gorgeous birds in our New Jersey forests in Spring. They also can be extremely frustrating to find since they typically stay high up in the treetops. The females too are beautiful, but they are even more difficult to see because of their yellowish-green plumage that blends in so well with the new spring leaves. The key though to locating them in the tree canopy is listening for their distinctive ‘chick-burr’ call note.

A NJ breeding bird they arrive here in late April–early May from their wintering grounds in northern South America to occupy deciduous forests and mixed deciduous-coniferous forests. They are also common in parks, orchards and suburban backyards! They are a monogamous bird within each breeding season but will switch mates from year to year. To help elude nest predators, they nest high up (50 feet or more) in the trees on branches well away from the tree truck. Typically, the nest site has an unobstructed view of the ground and open flyways from nearby trees. After the young hatch, the parents will feed their young for up to two weeks after the birds fledge.

Scarlet tanagers are primarily insect eaters, concentrating on caterpillars, beetles, ants, spiders but they will also take some fruit and buds from time to time. Scarlet tanagers rarely feed on the ground, preferring rather to forage among mid-canopy tree branches as well as forage in the air for flying insects. Reports indicate that they typically will eat small prey whole, but will kill larger prey, such as grasshoppers or dragonflies, by pressing them into a branch.

A female scarlet tanager.

After breeding and fledging young is complete the males trade in their red feathers for yellow-green whereupon, the family disperses before migrating. Strong fliers, they will journey to their wintering grounds along the eastern base of the Andes and western Amazonia from Panama to northwestern Bolivia where they will join up with other bird species in foraging flocks.

For more information about NJ Audubon, wildlife viewing opportunities, or how to perform conservation efforts on your property to help improve water quality, forests and habitat for all sorts of species, including the Scarlet Tanager, contact John Parke of NJ Audubon at john.parke@njaudubon.org or see njaudubon.org. For more information about buying NJ Audubon’s Jersey Grown S.A.V.E. black oil sunflower seed that help restore habitat, see njaudubon.org/SectionCalendar/SpecialPrograms/BirdSeedSaleDays.aspx